Christ the King Sunday according to the traditional church calendar and it is fitting that we take a look at Christ the King to reconfirm in our minds and hearts just Who we will be waiting for in the upcoming Advent season which starts next Sunday.
With that in mind let’s take a look at
Matthew 25:31-46 (NASB)
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
“When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
“for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Wow! What a Scripture! Christ the King has so many attributes and activities recorded in the Bible: Creator, Sustainer of Life, The Perfect Sacrifice, The Anointed One - Messiah, The First Born from the Dead, The Counselor, The Prince of Peace, The Mediator, The King of kings and Lord of lords, The Redeemer, and here He is revealed as the Judge who will return in the future to dispense justice to the nations and the King who pronounces judgment.
He is not some puny earthly king.
He is the King of Glory described in Psalm 24 as the LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle and the LORD of hosts.
But this return of Christ as King and Judge had been prophesied as early as the seventh generation after Adam
as it says in Jude 1:14b-15 (NASB) it says,
“Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all …
“and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
So, in this prophecy Christ the King has returned to earth. Why?
Verses 32 and 33 tell us,
“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”
I tried and tried to think of a common example that could be used to illustrate this separation of the sheep from the goats but was unable to do so because this situation is so unique and the reason it is so unique is because the sheep and the goats have chosen their species.
Imagine a world where a goat, when presented with the opportunity to be transformed miraculously into a sheep could do so just by embracing the offer extended by the one making the offer. Supernaturally the goat would be instantaneously into a baby sheep and cared for by the Great Transformer, Christ the Savior and King!
Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about grace? Grace was shown to be prevenient grace which draws each person to Christ. Then there is saving grace, which, when embraced brings that person to Christ, and finally, sustaining grace which enables we humans who are spiritually weak and pitiful to remain faithful to Christ the King.
All of us are born as goats and, as we will see later in this Scripture, the Lord, the Judge, Christ the King will allow each of us to enjoy or endure the path we have freely chosen.
That is why it is so difficult to come up with an illustration. For instance, if a jeweler had a bag of jewels containing both diamonds and cubic zirconia and was separating them into two groups, one for use in jewelry and the other for disposal, it would be a poor illustration as the contents of the bag would have no choice in the matter. In this Scripture, however, the sheep were once goats who have been transformed into sheep by individually responding to the calling grace of God.
With that in mind let’s go on to the next verses:
Matthew 25:34-40
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
“When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”
You will notice in verse 34 that it says, “Then the King”. This is the one who in verse 31 is called the Son of Man and in verse 32 is the one who separates the sheep from the goats. This is not some diminutive earthly king. In the OT a king could be the ruler of a small town with a wall built around it or the ruler of great Babylon. It was a very flexible term. Here it refers to the Christ, the Creator of all things, the Sustainer, the Lord of the hosts of heaven and the great Judge and this King has had a place prepared for the sheep, those who have turned away from sin and come to Him for salvation, from the foundation of the world.
The King then goes through a list of actions that this group of people have done, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, giving shelter to the stranger and clothing the naked. Now, the sheep cannot remember doing these kind things so they ask when they did them and Jesus, the King replies with this amazing statement in verse 40:
“Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”
Now here’s an amazing thing, the recipients of these actions are not the unsaved but the saved! That’s right! Verse 40 says, “… you did it to one of these brothers of Mine …”
That’s right, all of these things were done to those in the body of Christ.
Now, that’s from the NASB so go ahead and check it out in other translations to see if it’s true. And, while your at it check out all of chapters 24 and 25 to be sure that this section is not referring to “these brothers of Mine” as the Jews but as believers in Christ.
Now, we all think of caring for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and the strangers as outreach but Christ the King is referring here to those who are fellow believers!
Why is this so important to Christ the King?
This care is born out of love for Christ the King Himself.
This care for each other is a demonstration of our love for one another.
This demonstration of love for one another is a witness to the world.
Harmony and love for one another within the church is an attraction to the world.
Disunity within the church and a coldness or aloofness within the church is a sign to the unsaved to “stay away!” They get enough of that outside the church.
Caring for one another in the church is a natural out flow of placing our faith in Christ the King for salvation and is what is perfectly described in Ephesians 2:8-10, one of our memory Scriptures.
If you are one of the brothers of Christ the King and you are hungry without food, thirsty without water, feeling lonely or estranged without companionship or in need of clothing and I, as another brother of Christ the King neglect you, I am, in reality, neglecting Christ the King Himself!
If I neglect Christ the King Himself am I really a sheep or a goat?
Is it possible to love Christ the King with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and yet neglect Him? Not according to this Scripture and not according to the over arching message of the Bible. That is why the Holy Spirit, speaking through James the brother of Jesus tells us that, “Faith without works is dead.” We are not saved by works but as this Scripture clearly demonstrates, true faith results in actions that are proof of the faith.
On a side note, is caring for those in need who are outside the church important as well? Yes, of course it is as demonstrated by the parable of the Good Samaritan and as can be clearly seen throughout the Holy Scriptures, but, Christ the King is clearly speaking of “these brothers of Mine” as His disciple, in this passage.
So, Christ the King pronounces that the sheep will “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
But what about the goats?
Verses 41 - 46 tell us,
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
“for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Now, we need to remember that those on His left, the goats, are there because they have rejected the grace of God that was extended to them.
All of us here today are either a sheep or a goat. All of us here today are either a brother of Christ the King or in rebellion to Christ the King.
The choice is clear either,
“Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world …”
Or
“Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels …”
You see, the eternal fire, hell, was never intended for humans, only for the deceiver, the devil and the demons who followed him. It was never intended for you and it was never intended for me, but, the day is coming, when Christ the King will return as the Judge and at that point the time of choosing will be over.
The Good News, the great Good News, the awesome Good News is that we are still in the time of choosing. We can still respond to the call of God when the Holy Spirit coaxes us to come to Him for salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 says,
“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’”
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Those of us here today who are saved were once unsaved.
Those of us here today who are spiritual sheep were once spiritual goats.
Those of us here today who are brothers of Christ the King were once enemies of Christ the King.
Those of us here today who are now headed for the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world were once headed for eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
And, the only difference between before and after is that one day the Holy Spirit beaconed us, calling us to Himself and we said “Yes.” We could have said no and remained in danger of eternal destruction but, by the power given us by the grace of God, we placed our faith and trust in Him and Christ the King saved us.
If you are not a child of God, if you have not placed your faith and trust in Christ for salvation, today can be the day. As it says on the screen, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
And, in Hebrews 3:7-9 it says,
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried Me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.’”
Hardening of the heart is exactly what the goats did and their choice determined their eternal destiny. Why wait any longer? Make the choice to follow Christ the King today.
Invitation Song - Almost Persuaded
